The best place to put a penalty.

Most keepers are right handed, so tend to dive to their right.

High and left of the keeper would see you score every time.
 
Bukowski was a bear said:
Statistically playing it right down the middle is the most successful but it’s not done as often because you look like a fud when it doesn’t come off. There’s a cracking chapter about it in the Freakenomics book about it. The success rate on the data set was 81%.
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That isn’t what the caption showed.
 
Tight in bottom corner was always my choice.

Hard to get down to but easier to hit the target. Top corners are higher risk of a miss imho.

If you’re confident and accurate enough though, nae keeper is likely to save a well hit postage stamp pen.
 
Is it possible for a keeper to reach the top corner from a central, standing start? Confident and experienced penalty takers know this is where to put it. In shootouts I think some players just pick a side and hope that even if the keeper gets a hand to it, it still might go in. They don’t want to be the guy who blasts over.
 
Wouldn’t surprise me if in shootouts players tended to go across their body, I remember Cech talking about saving Robben’s penalty in 2012.

He said he could tell Robben was absolutely drained, and he’d go across his body to generate as much power as possible.

Anyway, in my career I scored 13/14. Tended to run straight at the ball then open my body with the final step and put it to my left (I’m left footed) - coincidentally, the one I missed was in the shootout when I was knackered and went for the ‘low and hard across the body’ finish. Keeper saved.
 
Top right. Most keeper are right handed so it’s high to their weak side.
 
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Big X said:
I was thinking bottom corner either side. Why do you think it’s better to go for the side that the keeper kicks the ball with?
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They need to push with their weaker foot to dive to that side.

As kids we were always taught to go bottom corner. Not to play the ball across your own box.

Games changed since then now. :))
 
I know there are loads of different techniques now but, I always liked the way Alan Shearer took a penalty. Foot through it and high. No idea what his success rate was but, you were always pretty confident he would score.

That says, the lad Fernandes at Man Utd seems to have made a mockery of the full thing with the way he does. Keepers must want to punch %^*& out the wee fud for doing that to them :D
 
BajanBear said:
Not penalties, but if I had a pound for everytime I shout at one of our players to keep their shot below the bar...and then sigh, we'll I'd be a millionaire.

It's unforgivable in my books. Keep the ball below the bar.
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Agree, and not just our players. The number of shots that go over the bar
from decent positions is ridiculous, even from top players. I’ve really only noticed how often this happens in the past few years. I don‘t know if the balls are slightly lighter now, or if it’s just players trying to hit the ball as hard as they can, with little thought of the actual trajectory of the ball.
 
Postage stamp.
I also liked the way Papac took penalties, although it was only shoot outs. Low and accurate, straight down the middle where the keeper was standing before he dived.
 
Scarred for life with penalties. I won't even be able to gloat when England going out on them again.
 
For some reason, i always leathered it to a keepers bottom left.

I am left footed, but apparently a keepers reflexes cant accomodate speed and power regardless of guessing.

Worked for me. :))
 
tazzabear said:
Just watching a piece showing the area of the goal where most penalties are scored.
It seems to be shoot outs only but I’m not sure a wider sample would show anything different.
It’s appear that anything shot over five, maybe six foot, ends up a goal.
Either side of the keeper.
These results don’t surprise me.
It’s something I was taught nearly fifty years back.
Keepers don’t dive up the way!
Expanding this a bit, it never ceases to amaze me how many players insist on keeping the ball low when shooting close in, inside the penalty box, just to make a distinction.
Defenders diving in getting a block, again they aren’t diving or falling up the way, keepers and defenders getting a block with their legs or feet.
Lifting the ball a bit takes the lucky legs out of the equation leaving only the ball being at a “good height” for the keeper to negotiate.
Why do players keep doing it?
I put it down to a couple of things.
One, the “you must hit the target/make the keeper work” idea.
Okay, if it’s not on target you don’t score but if the ball is too near the keeper, what’s the point.
What is the target anyway?
I’d say a foot inside the post, hit the inside of the side netting.
The second reason is that they’re sh1t scared of putting the ball over the bar and being accused of ballooning it.
So, they just err to much and make the keeper look good.
But, it was on target!
Well, that’s my rant for tonight.
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You must have read the same comics as me !! Was it the guy called Briggs in the Hornet who at one point in the comic strip reckoned if you placed the keeper in the centre of the goal with one hand outstretched above his head and drew an arc of his rotation left or right then the bits where the keeper couldn't reach any penalty were obvious ? The best place was either the top right or top left corners of the goal. ?

Most epic fail of this top corner technique was 1972 by Dixie Deans at Parkhead on the same night Rangers beat Bayern thus giving birth to the then famous chant;

Dixie Deans superstar,
F***ed the ball right over the bar.

Thus Celtc lost out 5-4 on penalties to Inter in the second leg of the European Cup Semi Final

Mind you that was before 6ft 6 ins goalies came on the scene. :D :D
 
I watched a thing a few years back where they analysed penalties and a right-footer, aiming for the top-left corner (as the taker is looking at the goal) had a significantly higher success rate than any other combination of foot and corner
 
The penalty Tav hit at Ibrox last season, I think it was Dortmund but happy to be corrected, he almost slid as he hit it and it went top corner, it ended up being perfect.

No keeper is saving a penalty that’s going direct into either top corner, it’s just not humanly possible to save it.
 
tazzabear said:
Just watching a piece showing the area of the goal where most penalties are scored.
It seems to be shoot outs only but I’m not sure a wider sample would show anything different.
It’s appear that anything shot over five, maybe six foot, ends up a goal.
Either side of the keeper.
These results don’t surprise me.
It’s something I was taught nearly fifty years back.
Keepers don’t dive up the way!
Expanding this a bit, it never ceases to amaze me how many players insist on keeping the ball low when shooting close in, inside the penalty box, just to make a distinction.
Defenders diving in getting a block, again they aren’t diving or falling up the way, keepers and defenders getting a block with their legs or feet.
Lifting the ball a bit takes the lucky legs out of the equation leaving only the ball being at a “good height” for the keeper to negotiate.
Why do players keep doing it?
I put it down to a couple of things.
One, the “you must hit the target/make the keeper work” idea.
Okay, if it’s not on target you don’t score but if the ball is too near the keeper, what’s the point.
What is the target anyway?
I’d say a foot inside the post, hit the inside of the side netting.
The second reason is that they’re sh1t scared of putting the ball over the bar and being accused of ballooning it.
So, they just err to much and make the keeper look good.
But, it was on target!
Well, that’s my rant for tonight.
Click to expand...
Side netting, just like Gazza used to do
 
WinkieWATP said:
They need to push with their weaker foot to dive to that side.

As kids we were always taught to go bottom corner. Not to play the ball across your own box.

Games changed since then now. :))
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A goalies standing foot is their strongest in a penalty situation, thats why most right footed goalies prefer diving to their left
 
Govan36 said:
You must have read the same comics as me !! Was it the guy called Briggs in the Hornet who at one point in the comic strip reckoned if you placed the keeper in the centre of the goal with one hand outstretched above his head and drew an arc of his rotation left or right then the bits where the keeper couldn't reach any penalty were obvious ? The best place was either the top right or top left corners of the goal. ?

Most epic fail of this top corner technique was 1972 by Dixie Deans at Parkhead on the same night Rangers beat Bayern thus giving birth to the then famous chant;

Dixie Deans superstar,
F***ed the ball right over the bar.

Thus Celtc lost out 5-4 on penalties to Inter in the second leg of the European Cup Semi Final

Mind you that was before 6ft 6 ins goalies came on the scene. :D :D
Click to expand...
Being from Govan, where did you steal the comics ?
Seriously, unaffordable in my household.
I mean, once the drink and cigs were bought.
I’m not from Govan, by the way.
Just a short swim away.
 
Hit it hard and aim for the top left or right corner.

Not of this modern paneka shit, or stuttering runs.
 
TerryArcade said:
A couple of my theories:

Penalty takers keep it low because you can hit the ball over the goal, you can't hit it under.

Top corners are the most difficult to save, but the most difficult to score. Gravity will affect a keeper's dive so most keepers will reach a bottom corner quicker than a top corner.

I don't watch a lot of football outside Rangers but I think Harry Kane is the best I've seen at consistently putting penalties in the top corner (not saying he's the best ever). I don't remember many (if any) penalty saves in the top corner, there has been plenty in bottom corners, not least by our very own, Shagger!
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It’s not a theory. You’re absolutely spot on.

There’s less of a risk of missing with a low shot.
 
Took penalties my whole life and never missed one.

Varied my spot dependant on what type of keeper they were but 75% would have been low and to the keepers left.
 
Laces through it and see where it goes

Seriously though, there is so much analysis in todays game that as a penalty taker you really have to spend time hitting all areas of the goal and go with what the coaches tell you in any given game.

Even then, I’d go for low and hard (without any skips or stops).
 
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